Next up: Ban leaf blowers

Now that we’ve banned plastic bags, let’s move on to leaf blowers; all of them, not just noisy ones. I’ve been commuting across Davis for 24 years on my bike. The amount of air pollution due to these devices is tremendous.

With our long, dry, hot summers, with more allergens in our Central Valley air than perhaps anywhere in the rest of the world, why is it that all leaf blowers are banned in Santa Monica and Laguna Beach, among others, but not in the bicycling capital of the country?

As a bicyclist, I value clean air to breathe, but also the upper body exercise of raking leaves and using a push mower, just like my fellow joggers and walkers. In a perfect world, I would ban most gasoline-powered lawn mowers, too, but let’s start with air-polluting, noise-polluting leaf blowers.

As a senior citizen, I have lived most of my life without them. When did having some leaves and clippings around become a problem, anyway?